Loc/Nat news

Ohio officials seize 40 pounds of fentanyl, an amount close to ‘chemical warfare’

By: Joshua Rhett Miller

November 1, 2019

A drug task force in Ohio seized more than 40 pounds of fentanyl — an amount akin to “chemical warfare” that could kill every person in the state, authorities said.

The suspected fentanyl — a powerful, synthetic opioid that’s up to 100 times more potent than morphine — was seized last late month along with 3 pounds of methamphetamine, a pound of heroin, three guns and more than $30,000 in cash, Ohio’s Regional Agencies Narcotics & Gun Enforcement Task Force announced Tuesday.

“The quantity of fentanyl in this case amounts to chemical warfare and a weapon of mass destruction,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said. “I applaud the work of our task force and our law enforcement partners — this is an enormous amount of deadly drugs that will no longer be on our streets.”

Vance Callender, Homeland Security Investigations’ special agent in charge for Michigan and Ohio, said the seized fentanyl alone is “enough to kill the entire population” of the Buckeye State — roughly 11.69 million people as of last year — many times over.

Three men from Dayton were charged in the investigation and are facing charges including possession with intent to distribute 400 or more grams of fentanyl and possession of a firearm as a felon, authorities said.

“These illegal drugs ruin lives, destroy families, fuels violence, drives up property crime, and wrecks neighborhoods,” Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck said. “Anyone associated with it — especially those who sell and traffic it — are doing violence to people and causing harm in our communities.”

Fentanyl is often mixed with heroin or cocaine without the user’s knowledge, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But a government report released last month found that meth is actually the bigger killer, despite fentanyl driving up drug overdoses in the United States overall. In 2017, meth was the drug most frequently involved in deaths in 19 states west of the Mississippi, according to the data.

The Rule of Law:

The preservation of The Republic is critical for the future of America. The Constitution of the United States and the Well Being of American Citizens all depend on the Judicial outcome of the evil and seditious attempt to take down a Duly Elected President. We are waiting to witness and hear the results of Attorney General Barr’s findings. Will the rule of law apply to those senior government officials involved in the Silent Coup?

Move would be to reassure Hong Kong’s people rather than facing down Chinese threats, he says

The UK should give Hong Kong citizens full UK nationality as a means of reassurance amid the current standoff with Beijing, the chair of the influential Commons foreign affairs committee has argued.

Tom Tugendhat said this should have happened to people in the formerly British-ruled territory in 1997, when it was handed back to Chinese control, and that doing so now would reassure Hong Kong’s people that they were supported by the UK.

Hong Kong has been gripped by 10 weeks of large-scale and occasionally violent pro-democracy demonstrations, which have been met by a sometimes brutal police response, and increasingly trenchant threats from Beijing.

Under the so-called “one country, two systems” arrangement that had Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule, Beijing considers the population to be Chinese nationals. However, a number of people in the territory hold what is known as a British national (overseas) passport, which gives some rights, for example to stay in the UK for up to six months, but no automatic ability to live permanently or work.

Tugendhat said: “The UK had obligations to Hong Kong citizens before 1997, and the extension of overseas citizenship, which is in many ways a second-tier citizenship, was a mistake, and I think it’s one that should be corrected. At a time when there are clearly tensions in Hong Kong, the UK could reassure many Hong Kong citizens that their existing rights are recognised by the UK, and they are valued.”

He said this was more about giving reassurance to Hong Kong’s people than facing down Chinese threats.

Tugendhat said: “These are still Chinese citizens from the special autonomous region, so I don’t think the Chinese government would see them as anything other than Chinese citizens under a slightly different status. I don’t think that’s the point.

“I think the point is that the UK has got an opportunity to right a wrong, to give confidence to a people that is clearly very nervous about its future, and understandably so, and I think it’s the right thing to do. And I think all those come together now.”

Carrie Lam, the territory’s beleaguered chief executive – the head of the autonomous government chosen by a limited electorate stacked with pro-Bejing groups – said on Tuesday that continued unrest would “push Hong Kong down a path of no return, will plunge Hong Kong society into a very worrying and dangerous situation”.

Tugendhat, whose committee said in a report in March that increasing mainland Chinese interference in Hong Kong risked seeing the hands-off approach of one country, two systems, replaced by “one country, one-and-a-half systems”, urged restraint.

He said: “I don’t know what the future looks like. I can’t predict it. But what I can say is that a period of calm would be beneficial to everybody. The only way that this is going to be resolved is by political conversation. It’s not going to be resolved by violence on the streets or anything like that.”

“The Hunt” is on for those that believe and support The Constitution, freedom, and liberty and reject fascism. They have already begun to hunt virtually. Goebbels and Eichmann would be so proud.

“Those who resist will perish”

The puppets of the DNC walked right into it again. With special thanks to the people of Hong Kong who know that their freedom will be over soon if they do not fight for it. Taiwan will be next.

What does DNC stand for? There are the standard abortive definitions, but probably the most re levant is DAZI: Democratic American Socialists. And we all know that fascism rides in from the left. And now we also know what the “Universal” part is.

NBC Universal still plans to release the controversial movie “The Hunt” as scheduled on September 27 despite significant backlash over the film that depicts privileged vacationers hunting “deplorables” for sport.

“There are no plans to not release the movie. No plans to move the release,” a studio source told Fox News.

NBC Universal executives are aware of the widespread objections to the movie’s plot but have decided not to take significant action at this time.

“The Hunt” is billed as a satirical take on wealthy thrill-seekers taking a private jet to a five-star resort where they embark on a “deeply rewarding” expedition that involves hunting down and killing designated humans.

NBC’s Universal Pictures, which shares parent company Comcast with NBC News and MSNBC, told Fox News on Wednesday that the movie’s marketing campaign would be “temporarily paused” on the heels tragic mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

Universal Pictures declined further comment on Thursday.

The Hollywood Reporter reported on Tuesday that the “violent, R-rated film from producer Jason Blum’s Blumhouse follows a dozen MAGA types who wake up in a clearing and realize they are being stalked for sport by elite liberals.”

According to the Hollywood trade publication, characters in the film refer to the victims as “deplorables,” which is what Hillary Clinton infamously dubbed Trump supporters during the 2016 election.

The report also noted that a character asks, “Did anyone see what our ratf–ker-in-chief just did?”

Multiple NBC Universal executives, including CEO Brian Roberts, did not immediately respond when asked for comment by Fox News.

The movie has caused outrage, with conservatives calling it everything from “political violence” to “sick murder fantasies about right-wingers.”

“Alexa, it’s Sunday and I feel like going to mass. Please find me a church”…You are now on a list…”What list?”…It’s not a good idea to protest…”But then I am inviting over some parishioners to watch football”…The smart meter is ready to determine how many will actually be present…The video cameras outside will get their license plates…

How Amazon will take over your house

By Erica Pandey

August 1, 2019

In recent years, Amazon has made a series of investments, acquisitions and R&D moves in the smart home industry. None seemed particularly consequential on its own, but with a real estate deal last week, Amazon appears to have captured first-mover advantage in one of the most important new industries on the planet.

Why it matters: With the deals, Amazon has taken a pioneering lead in what has come to be called “surveillance capitalism,” which includes some of the biggest businesses of the future, like 5G, autonomous vehicles and smart cities. Now, the behemoth, with its edge in this new economy, is positioned to explode its revenue.

“Amazon has entered the surveillance capitalism domain with a very big bang,” says Shoshana Zuboff, author of “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.” “Once you have this as your lens, and you look at Amazon, you will never look back.”

The company has “already got all of this behavioral data flowing every which way,” she says. “Now they’re thinking, ‘We can be a Google or a Facebook on top of what we’ve already got. Not only do we know what they know, but we know stuff that they don’t know. We don’t have to infer that you’re interested in a white T-shirt with a big rose on the chest. We actually know because you bought one.'”

Other tech giants aren’t “even in the same universe as Amazon,” says Amy Webb, founder of the Future Today Institute. “We’re talking about an entirely new ecosystem that is literally being born in front of our eyes.”

What’s happening: Amazon’s newest offering, a deal announced last week with Realogy, connects homebuyers to real estate agents and gives them $5,000 in smart devices and services when they close the deal. The huge upside for Amazon is unchecked access to the data-rich interiors of our homes.

On paper, Amazon is giving out cool stuff for free. But the company is alsogetting “extremely inexpensive access to record some of the most intimate parts of your life,” says Meredith Whittaker, co-founder of the AI Now Institute.

“There are hundreds of millions of marketing dollars that go into presenting these as sleek, convenience devices, but smart home is a misnomer. We’re really talking about a surveillance home” that feeds tech firms data that is far more personal and valuable than what is garnered from an Instagram like or an online purchase.

Speaking to Axios, Amazon says that its speakers and cameras can be turned off at will and come with lights that signal when they are recording. It also says customers can log onto portals and delete whatever they want.

Amazon is actually “ahead of the curve on transparency” compared to its rivals, says Adam Wright, an Internet of Things analyst at the International Data Corporation.

Still, there’s a chasm between what the company says it does and what is technically possible, Whittaker says.

And there’s more.

Amazon has rolled outEcho, its smart speaker, Ring, its camera doorbell, and dozens of other Alexa-enabled smart appliances. And Amazon is winning: about 70% of people who own smart speakers have Amazon’s devices, according to a recent report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

It partnered with Lennar, the country’s largest homebuilder to put up houses that have internet “built into the walls and floors,” making them the perfect shells for smart devices from Alexa to Ring, reports CNBC. And these homes aren’t just for the rich. There are affordable versions being propped up in blue-collar neighborhoods. too, Webb says.

Amazon has also invested in Plant Prefab, a startup which constructs smart houses.

The result, per Webb, is “Amazon in literally every nook and cranny of our home because either it built us the home, or it has got devices in the home, or it helped sell us the home.”

This plays into Amazon’s hands because consumers are increasingly likely to buy into one stack of devices instead of a patchwork, says Wright. “There’s less friction, and the further you get into the Amazon ecosystem, the less likely you are to switch over to Google or Samsung or another competitor.”

Once Amazon has planted its flag in a house, there’s a lot it could do, experts say.

For example, emails obtained by Vice revealed that Amazon has teamed up with over 200 U.S. police departments in a partnership that — with owners’ consent — lets officers see which homes have Amazon’s video doorbell, Ring, and request footage from the owners of those devices. “Police do not need a warrant to ask for footage,” writes Vice’s Caroline Haskins.

Look for the company’s advertising business to keep pushing up against that of Google or Facebook as it gets smarter about predicting human behavior, says Zuboff. Amazon could also use the data it collects from conversations and movements inside customers’ houses to entice them to spend more money on its site by getting better at figuring out what they want to buy

On top of that, the company is wading into selling health insurance. Surveillance could theoretically reveal if a prospective insurance buyer has a pre-existing condition or mental health issues.

What to watch: Amazon is ahead, but “this isn’t a one-horse race yet,” Wright says. Google, for instance, is working with construction firms to pre-install its WiFi in new homes and set the stage for its devices.

Xi Jinping Ramps Up Religious Persecution

“There’s only one allowed religion in China, and that’s secular socialism,” Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, tells National Review. “And the Church is the community party, the acolytes, its members, and their pontiff, Chinese president Xi Jinping himself.”